This family is downright awesome. The Mr. & Mrs. are incredible parents (and good friends of ours). I’ve often looked to them for guidance during Baby O’s first year. Their two daughters are absolutely beautiful, well-mannered, and silly. It was a pleasure to photograph them!

In an effort to solicit genuine smiles from the girls, we were dancing to “Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle, Yeah!”…I’ll refrain from typing all of the lyrics for risk of complete embarrassment. If you know the song I’m talking about, then you can appreciate the humor of seeing 4 adults and a few kids dancing to it in the park at 9am on a Saturday morning.

I took these two photos about a year ago when Baby O was 6 months old. I just looove how sweet she looks when she’s sleeping! Honestly, I’m sure all little kids look so cute when they’re sleeping. Maybe because, when awake, they’re these spitballs of energy and they express a kaleidoscope of emotions and expressions. You wonder if they’ll ever slow down. And then, just then, they konk out for a good ‘ol nap…

I had my camera on the highest ISO setting for these (i.e. they’re super grainy), but I didn’t want to risk waking her by turning on the lights. Oh, I love those little fingers…

She’s nearing 1.5 years and I thought this rainy day would be perfect for some more sweet, sleepy baby photos for the family album. I waited until the end of her nap, and tried to sneak into her room without disturbing her. Turns out, she was already awake, just rubbing her sheepish eyes…

…And playing with her mobil. She’s learned how to turn it on herself, but cranking the knob…

…But she has to do some maneuvering to reach it…

…And, quite frankly, it often results in this – The collapse of the mobil…

…But, she’s happy! And she wiggles her rear end to the music, feeling content that she accomplished it on her own.

What a silly girl! I hope you’re having a fun week. Does anyone know about crafts you can do with a 1.5 year old? I am just chomping at the bit to start having crafty time with her, but I’m not sure if I know of any supplies that are really “safe” at this age. I’d love any suggestions. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Okay, two things…I just got this adorable headband (bottom-left) from one of my new favorite children’s shops, Jaxon Jill Designs. Thing number 2? I finally found a big globe with gorgeous blues, just as I was searching for…I thought it would be fun for Baby O to learn about geography (when she’s older) and, for me, to spin and dream about places we’ll travel & reminisce about places we’ve been. It was gently used and quite the bargain. I was quite pleased.

The headband was a very generous surprise, tucked in with my clothing order from JJDesigns. And it is one of my new favorites! If you’ve followed this blog at all, you may notice that Baby O is almost always wearing a headband, hat, or hair clip. Her Mama just looves handmade accessories! And she’s been very tolerant of them as well. Until recently…

…She now takes them off right away and then immediately tries to put them on again. She nudges you away if you try to help her. She wants to figure it out herself. She’s so determined…

I should mention that she also only wants to feed herself, and she wants to take on and off the lids of every jar or container in the house. As you can imagine, these are messy days.

She tries to put in on herself and then throws a little pity party…Quite the diva.

I’m pretty excited because I think these little temper tantrums mean that she’s really asserting her independence, and striving to be capable of doing so much more on her own. I try to redirect her when she gets burned out on something, rather than show her an easy way out. I’m not sure if this is the “right” method, but it is working well at the moment.

So, on to the drum set! One of my favorite toys, by the way. It is so clever and gets her to really enjoy music even more, which I think is quite valuable.

Oh, so soo happy!…

…until she gets her arm “stuck” and has another little pity party…

Poor baby! Well, I think this is just the stage she’s at. She tries so many new things every day, and as soon as she gets tired, her patience for learning wanes. It’s the same for me actually! I just don’t look as cute when I’m fussy. 😉

This is a little after the fact, but I wanted to post a few of my favorites from this February session with a very sweet little client…

We were going to meet in a park for our session, but the Little Man woke up with a bad case of teething (I can hardly imagine how uncomfortable that must be for babies, by the way!). No worries, we did the session in their home, where Finley would be most comfortable. And I’m so glad we did.

So, here it is, little Baby Finley, at all of Nine Months!…I love his sweet, pensive expression in this one…

Finley’s Grandpa and Great-Grandpa were both Fire Fighters. We got some precious ones of him with Great-Grandpa’s Fire Fighter Helmut. Then a little Lovin’ from Momma…

Finley’s “Furry Sibling” was so sweet during the shoot…always nearby, but never in the way.

Finley’s Momma handmade these “cupid wings” for him (since he was 9 Months in February). What a clever idea! You know how I looove craftiness! I really love all of his Mom’s ideas, actually. She’s quite the creative one.Want a glimpse of the wings, completed? Just a peek…How cute is that?

We figured he really earned a little playtime in his favorite swing, after all of the posing he was doing for us…

And one last one of Finley & his Momma…

What a sweet, sweet family. So gracious, welcoming, and energetic. It has been a true joy working with them this year, for all of Finley’s “Milestones”. Can’t WAIT for his One Year Portraits!!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. Gorgeous weather here…Hope it lasts for a while longer!

Has this ever happened to you…You find something quite cute and perfectly priced for the Little Ones in your life, but it only comes in one color/style, and you know the kids will enjoy being able to tell theirs apart? Well, I was in Target the other day and I stumbled across these plush little guys…

Quite a good price, in my book! Baby O grabbed one out of my hands and proceeded to lavish it with squeezes and a few slimy “puckers”. Seeing as how we do love dinosaurs in this household, I figured I would get one for her Easter basket…perfect! But, wait…her two boy cousins would like one too! I searched for a different color or variety of dinosaur but, at least at this Target, there were only three lonely green ones. So, I scooped them all up, figuring I could do something cute to personalize them.

Yesterday, while Baby O was watching “Yo Gabba Gabba” (kind of an interesting show…I actually had a dream that I was on it last night, and I had to teach kids how to line dance! I was using a terrible fake country accent in my dream…but, that’s off topic)…I got out my little box of fabric scraps and found this thin (1/8″ thick elastic as well). Perfect for making little bow-ties for the Dinosaurs! I had some 4″ square pieces, so I started with those. I ended up cutting them in half, so they were 2″ x 4″ (See Figure 1 below). I used pinking shears to zig zag the edges (since I wasn’t in the mood to whip out the sewing machine for this one).

Figure 2: I basically pinched the fabric together in the middle and made a few stitches with white thread. Figure 3: I sewed 3 rings of elastic, made to fit the dino’s necks perfectly. A few little stitches was all it took. I made a few more stitches to secure the bow to the elastic and then used the thin strip of fabric (seen in figure 2) to wrap around the center for a completed look. I just attached that with a drop of fabric glue in the back.

All in all, it took about 30 minutes, or one episode of Tony Hawk showing kids how to skate board, while Baby O bounced up and down with excitement.

Meet the cute little Dino Family…

Okay, so the green tie matched a little too well – it almost blends in, but that’s okay! Also, I ended up making O’s dinosaur wear the bow on her head, though Baby O can always change that later…I’m quite sure she will!

What are you up to this week? I would love to hear about any simple crafty projects you’ve done, particularly for the kids or home. You can always leave a link to them in the comments section.

And thank you for all of the sweet emails and comments about the “Birth Photography” post on Monday. They really made me smile! I hope you’re getting ready for a great, relaxing weekend! XOXO

I have been enjoying all of your posts. This one is precious. What a good idea to personalize the dinos. And, yes, O needs a dino and not a bunny. I also loved the newborn post. Beautiful and heart warming photos, although you are right, the one pix made me nervous.